Workout: 8-mile hike in the countryside near London, hence the trail mix instead of lunch

Mood: Satisfied

Summary Comments
Daily energy levels 1-10: 7
Hunger level between meals 1-10: 4
Satisfaction level with meals 1-10: 8
Struggles today with Primal efforts: Woke up in the middle of the night again.
Benefits noticed from Primal efforts: Still less anxious than before I started the challenge.
Daily highlight(s): Lovely hike in green woods, and didn't succumb to temptation to buy sandwiches, crisps, etc. while travelling. Didn't feel tempted, actually.
Daily needs-to-improve: Working on sleeping better. I've downloaded the f.lux recommended by Mark in one of his articles on sleep and will see if it helps.

Contentedly tired this evening after a good long walk. I only had a mixture of nuts and dried fruit with me on the trip, and didn't feel short of food at all, I was quite surprised not to feel hungry on the way.

My first sprinting session went pretty well as far as I can tell. It didn't take long and I still had plenty of energy afterwards, I didn't feel as if I needed a long time to recover (although I was doing a "novice" session as recommended in the PBF book). I did notice that I felt rather irritable afterwards for some reason. I've no idea whether that was from the exercise or not - I don't usually respond to exercise that way.

I'm still intrigued by some of the information on this site about sleeping. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I have seasonal affective disorder (diagnosed in 2001). I haven't really kept up with the latest ideas on it since being diagnosed, so things like the f.lux app and the idea of wearing orange glasses or goggles in the evening are new to me. If they can help me keep on track over the winter I'll be delighted.

Summary Comments
Daily energy levels 1-10: 7
Hunger level between meals 1-10: 4
Satisfaction level with meals 1-10: 8
Struggles today with Primal efforts: Forgot to go out for a walk!
Benefits noticed from Primal efforts: Didn't need an afternoon nap, so had more time to work.
Daily highlight(s): More stamina during CF - felt afterwards as if I had actually worked my muscles.
Daily needs-to-improve: I'm sure there must be something, but I can't think of anything just now.

Still feeling pretty good about the challenge, it does seem to be doing me good. I woke up with a slight headache this morning for some reason but it soon disappeared. Not needing to nap in the afternoon is quite a plus as it gives me more time during the day to do stuff I need to do. I've been trying to make bedtime more regular and expose myself to less blue light in the evening, and that seems to be helping with sleep.

Summary Comments
Daily energy levels 1-10: 7
Hunger level between meals 1-10: 5
Satisfaction level with meals 1-10: 9
Struggles today with Primal efforts: None in particular.
Benefits noticed from Primal efforts: Still on an even keel energy-wise during the day.
Daily highlight(s): Sunny day!
Daily needs-to-improve: Didn't sleep through the night, so still working on a bedtime routine.

Still chugging along pretty happily on the 21-day challenge. I feel now that I'm taking a day's rest in between CF sessions and no longer running three days a week - last night I left the CF session with my muscles aching in a good way, and I can still feel the effects of the session today, which I'm taking to mean I actually got something out of it. I'm getting to know which local shops are good for which things, but will continue to investigate resources as there isn't much in the way of organic/humanely reared stuff out there in my neighbourhood. On Thursday I go back to the day job, which will involve finding Primal-friendly things I can eat in the office at lunchtime. With a bit of planning, I'm sure I can do it.

Hi there!
Way to go on your challenge! Thanks for the words of encouragement.
I was curious about crossfit but the clubs in my area are quite expensive. Is there any way I can do CF without shelling out 200bux a month? I've gone from 100%-sedentary-won't-even-walk-to-the-corner-store to walking everywhere everyday, elliptical machine daily, cycling classes 2-3x a week and working out on 3 day splits on various weight machines.
I'm still also having trouble with my sleep routine. I can't seem to "unplug", especially since I read ebooks!
Take care.

Summary Comments
Daily energy levels 1-10: 8
Hunger level between meals 1-10: 3
Satisfaction level with meals 1-10: 9
Struggles today with Primal efforts: Still not sleeping through the night.
Benefits noticed from Primal efforts: More stamina during CF, which means I can work harder.
Daily highlight(s): Able to keep going through CF workout with few breaks.
Daily needs-to-improve: Use lightbox in the morning - it's seasonal affective disorder season in the UK.

Hope it gets better for you ... I figure that after years of not sleeping well, it'll take some time to reset the body clock. Is the sleep you are getting more restful?

For most of my adult life, I was an insomniac able to semi-function with 1-2 hrs of sleep with infusion of 4 espressos in the AM heading to work, another at midday plus another jolt at 3pm. That was then. Lately I noticed that most days my body wakes up exactly after 7.5 hrs of sleep no matter what time I fall asleep at night. If I sleep before or by 1030 pm, I wake up after a full 8 hours to birds singing as my alarm clock. Plus sleep and naps are becoming more restful waking me up energized for my AM sun walks no matter the weather.

Whoops, didn't manage to complete my journal yesterday, but I'm still here, and still at it!

celestylez, you're right that CF can be expensive. I think that's largely because you get so much individual attention and access to specialised equipment. Based on my own experience, I suspect you'd get similar benefits from doing the bodyweight exercises given in the Primal Fitness e-book (which you get if you sign up to Mark's e-mail list), together with the sprinting stuff. If you do decide to go to CF, an ongoing membership seems to work out cheaper than paying for individual "drop-in" sessions, but I suppose the prices will vary depending on where you are.

seattleslim, I do think the sleep I'm getting is more restful, even if it's in two chunks overnight. I saw this article recently about how our ancestors (although not as far back as Grok) used to sleep in two sessions, so maybe I'm on to something. Your Ancestors Didn I hope to get to where celestylez is sooner or later.

Edit: Right now I am sitting in the office, and someone has brought a cake in. It's sitting 15 feet away from me. It's going to be a long day. Begone cake, I have primal snacks!

I'm not going to continue detailing all meals, as I think I've got the hang of what I should be eating now, but I'm still keeping up with the challenge. I had a lovely long walk in green surroundings today on the Capital Ring in London, then came hope and slept for a couple of hours. I snacked on nuts and sultanas on the way after a cooked breakfast to set me up for the day, and didn't feel hungry in the way I would if I'd been subsisting on flapjacks and crisps.

One thing that's improved a *lot* since I've been on the Primal Challenge is I don't have restless legs at night any more, which is a huge benefit. I think it was caused by too much exercise, and I'm so pleased it's not happening any more.

I'm intrigued by the idea of sleeping in two sessions overnight in the way described in the article I linked to above and in the comments beneath it. I'm experimenting with reducing my exposure to light in the evening earlier than before, to see if I can adjust to going to bed earlier and perhaps spending some time awake in the night without seeing it as a disaster. Just a bit worried I might not wake up in time for my weightlifting class tomorrow morning!